“Campaign Speech” Eminem

It’s been a crazy year and what better time than now for the one and only Slim Shady to weigh in on everything. Em’s never been once to mince words, so it comes as no surprise that his “Campaign Speech” is politically charged. Although it is partly a jumbled amalgamation of current references, his impeccable delivery and passion make this a fantastic way to start the closing out of election season.

The first thing to understand about this new track is that it is a rant, and not a speech in the slightest. Marshall not-so-seamlessly transitions between an innumerable amount of pop culture references, from a sexually frustrated Robin Thicke to Apple Watches to even Bubba Sparxxx. It’s very much like reading Reddit and YouTube comment sections simultaneously to create a culturally relevant rap cypher. It’s not unlike Eminem to do this in his music, but it feels especially forced throughout a lot of the track (“Whose pens iller than Prince in a chinchilla/ Or Ben Stiller in a suspense thriller”). It sounds good, but the rant loses coherence very quickly into the first few bars.

That being said, Em’s flow is amazing, traversing awkwardly written bars about waterboarding Trump supporters with such grace and control. He might not be the best writer but he can make nearly anything sound incredible. Lexically the bars aren’t structured well but phonetically the words flow together beautifully. The multisyllabic rhymes are so dense and multilayered that it should be examined by a PhD linguist. This alone makes the track amazing despite the clunky lyrical content.

Em has proven that while his humor can be too irreverent (rhyming misogynistic with “massaging this d**k) and his lyrics can be too clunky and edgy, his delivery is pinnacle. If he actually honest his content and directs it at the presidential candidates, it’ll be an interesting sight.